David Murphy

If the Cincinnati Enquirer is to be believed, the Phillies could struggle to gain anything of value in exchange for center fielder Shane Victorino.

Paul Daugherty, a columnist at the paper, included a tidbit on his blog that said the Reds nixed a deal that would have seen Victorino head to the Reds in return for Ondrusek, straight up.

Ondrusek is a 27-year-old righthander who is in the middle of his third full season in the major leagues. His 2.70 ERA looks good, but everything else about him says that he is at best a No. 4 or No. 5 reliever in a contender's bullpen (which is where he slots in the Reds bullpen). His strikeout rate is passable -- 6.1-per-nine this year, 6.0 for his career -- but he has walked at least 4.0 batters-per-nine in the last two seasons, which isn't something you want to see out of a guy who is pitching in high-leverage situations. If you do see it, you better be getting more than 6 strikeouts-per-nine.

That being said, he has gotten results, converting 31-of-37 hold/save opportunities in his career while stranding 77 of 97 inherited runners, and his groundball and home run rates are both solid. His whiff rate (17 percent), is slightly above average, as is his strike rate (62 percent).

Frankly, if the Phillies are hoping to get relief help in exchange for Victorino, which is what all of the indications are, Ondrusek is about the level of guy they can realistically expect. Anybody better is probably going to be an integral part of a contending team, which is the type of team that would be trading for Victorino. The only hope is that teams get more desperate as the deadline approaches.

Frankly, this sounds like it would have been a great trade for the Reds. From the Philies perspective, it would have been a cheap, usable bullpen piece who is better than anybody they have at the moment, aside from Antonio Bastardo and Jonathan Papelbon. But he profiles closer to Michael Schwimer than he does Papelbon. Ondusek would give the Phillies what they hoped they were getting when they signed Chad Qualls. But according to Daugherty, he won't be giving them anything.

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